REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Ranganayaki N (2003)34 has concluded a study on the title of “investor‟s

perception towards investment with special to women investors.” A sample of 100
respondents in Sulur and adjoining areas was taken. It is concluded that recurring
deposit and post office savings are most preferable investment avenues in the
banking sector. It may be due to safety, liquidity and also for the benefits.
Whenever, one thinks of women and investment the first thing that comes to mind
is gold and Jewellery. But now-a-day‟s women are disproving the above said
belief
Ronald T. Wilcox (2003)35 examined how investors choose a mutual fund and
found that investors pay a great attention to past performance and also indicated
that the educated investors demonstrated greater knowledge of basic finance made
poorer, not better, decisions than their less financially savvy.
Lenard et. al. (2003)36 empirically investigated investor‟s attitudes toward
mutual funds. The results indicate that the decision to switch funds within a fund
family is affected by investor‟s attitude towards risk, current asset allocation,
investment losses, investment mix, capital base of the fund age, initial fund
performance, investment mix, fund and portfolio diversification. The study
reported that these factors are crucial to be considered before switching funds
regardless of whether they invest in non-employer plans or in both employer and
non-employer plans.
Paula A. Tkac (2004)39 found that investors are irrational or in some other sense
cannot look out for their own best interests. Mutual fund industry provides a
variety of products and price structures to heterogeneous consumer preferences and
budgets. Consumer who prefer more style, features or power willingly pay higher
prices and the investor rely on and pay to the financial advisors or brokers for
processing and formulating guidance regarding fund allocation. They are facing
risk because of misconduct by advisory firms. They are not demanding any
disclosures of their fund. The risks reduced to zero if investors are willing to pay
with their own time and energy to monitor their fund position
K. D. Mehru (2004)40 documented that the ignorance of the investors about
mutual funds coupled with aggressive selling by promising higher returns of the
investors have resulted in loss of investors‟ confidence due to inability to provide
higher return. The agents or distributors of mutual funds are more governed by the
commissions and incentives they get for selling the schemes and not by the
requirements of the investors and quality of the products. They do not explain the
risk factors to the investors.
Sankaran (2004)42 proposes the future direction for investors will be to invest in
pension funds, as government is envisaging a policy to cover all kinds of investors.
He further opined that MF industry will continue to grow in spite of competition
and will be propelled in the right direction because of the investor friendly
financial markets.
Singh (2004)43 has established that middle class salaried investors and
professionals perfected to have disclosure of net asset value on a day today basis
and wanted to invest in MFs in order to get higher tax rebates. Further, it is
evidenced that small investors perceived MFs to be better investment alternative
and public sector investments to be less risky.
Manjesh (2005)46 in article titled "Money Market Mutual Funds (MMMFs): A
Macro Perspective" has elucidated the origin, features and advantages of MMMFs
as to being a very viable option for investment for the retail investor as Money
Markets offer superior returns in comparison with bank deposits, are highly liquid
at relatively lower risk for short term funds. The paper focuses on the advantages
of MMMF investment for a retail investor and discusses the problems in
penetration of MMMFs for the retail investor in India as it is obstructed by
perceived conflict of interest by the regulators (RBI and SEBI) in the matter of
control of MMMFs, lack of Mutual Funds points of contact across the country, the
reliance of Mutual Fund industry on corporate investment and structural
constraints.
Ramamurthy and Reddy S (2005)48 conducted a study to analyze recent trends
in the MF industry and draw a conclusion that the main benefits for small
investors‟ due to efficient management, diversification of investment, easy
administration, nice return potential, liquidity, transparency, flexibility,
affordability, wide range of choices and a proper regulation governed by SEBI.
Kavitha M (2006)58 discussed that investors in Coimbatore city are aware of the
various investment opportunities. They are also aware that no investment can be
made without risk. Each and every investment has its own risk, even the more
Secured investment like bank deposits, land, gold, and silver etc. Investments made
in land and buildings, gold etc, has comparative value in long run. The private
sector investments consists of equity shares and preference shares , debentures and
public deposits with companies, the predominance of Govt. sector serves the
purpose of bringing about confidence to the individual investors
Jayanthi B (2006)59 conducted a study entitled “A study on customer perception
towards UTI mutual fund” Coonoor with special reference to Karvy Stock Broking
Limited, Coonoor. The study was undertaken to know the perception of the
customers towards UTI mutual fund and thereby improve the efficiency of UTI.
The study revealed that the investors have greatest preference for capital
appreciation. The level of awareness about UTI mutual fund schemes can be
enhanced through the efforts of the company. Since many investors are not sure of
investing again in UTI mutual fund, the company should take efforts to make them
invest again. The statistical analysis of data has given insight into investor
demographics and their investment preference.UTI mutual fund has its own brand
name and thereby it must improve its operations through its performance and
service
Devasena S (2006)63 made an attempt to find out “Risk perception and portfolio
management of equity investors”. The study reveals that the investors in Tirupur
Karvy are not aware of portfolio which would minimize risk and maximize the
return. And also it is clear that the investors in Tirupur Karvy have low level of
understanding about risk and the importance of portfolio management as they are
not aware of the portfolio management proper steps to be taken in order to improve
the awareness level in the minds of the investors.
Bollen (2007)67 studied the dynamics of investor fund flows in a sample of
socially screened equity mutual funds and compared the relation between annual
fundflows & lagged performance in SR funds to the same relation in a matched
sample of conventional funds. The result revealed that the extra-financial SR
attribute serves to dampen the rate at which SR investors trade mutual funds. The
study noted that the differences between SR funds and their conventional
counterparts are robust over time and persist as funds age. The study found that the
preferences of SR investors may be represented by conditional multi-attribute
utility function (especially when SR funds deliver positive returns). The study
remarked that mutual fund companies can expect SR investors to be more loyal
than investors in ordinary funds.
Onur Arugaslam, Ed Edwards and Ajay Samant (2008)69 noted that better
investment strategy enables investors to earn superior return for an average level of
risk. An investor, who is comfortable with high level risk, could have attained
higher returns
Ayyappan S (2009)72 made an attempt to analyze investor‟s satisfaction and their
awareness. On the basis of the results of the study, the he has made some definite
suggestions like taking good decision while investment, carefully selecting proper
avenues, to compare the performance of return and investors could easily receive
updated information for the further development of investment. It hopes that, the
awareness of investors will be raised to a considerable extent if all the suggestions
are implemented.
Sanjay Das (2010)74 MFs have emerged as an important segment of financial
markets and so far have delivered value to the investors. The study reveals that the
investors‟ perception is dependent on the demographic profile and assesses that the
investor‟s age, marital status and occupation has direct impact on the investors‟
choice of investment. The study further reveals that female segment is not fully
tapped and even there is low target on higher income group people. Hence, fund
managers should take steps to tap the female segment and higher income group
segment to enhance more investment in MF Investment Avenue which would
really help the industry to flourish. Further, the findings of the research were on the
factors influencing investor‟s perception on public private MF‟s. It reveals that
liquidity, flexibility, tax savings, service quality and transparency etc. are the
factors which have a higher impact on perception of investors. These factors give
them the required boosting in the investment process. Therefore, it becomes
imperative on part of the fund managers to enhance these features for attracting
more investors and also to retain the trust, the investors have in them.
Lakshmana Rao (2011)77 stated in his study on „Analysis of investors‟
perceptions towards mutual fund schemes (with reference to awareness and
adoption of personal and family considerations)‟ that Investors between 31 to 40
years of age have highest awareness and adoption of different mutual fund
schemes. It is also concluded that there is an association between respondents‟
residential status and awareness of balanced fund and debt fund schemes.
Rao (2011)78 conducted study on “Analysis of individual investor behavior
towards Mutual Fund Scheme”. In this study author presents mutual fund investor
awareness and adoption of different schemes with educational level. The research
findings showed that with increased level of education is linked with greater risk
tolerance. This tends to support the hypothesis developed in previous researches
i.e. positive relationship exists between educational attainment and financial risk
Hossein Panahian et al (2011)79 showed that investors' attitude towards
transparency and disclosure of financial information, Board structure and
performance, corporate issues and surveillance measures in stock market and,
finally, the ownership structure had the greatest influence in explaining investors'
behavior in Tehran Stock Exchange. Consequently, paying attention to different
aspects of such cases as providing information on time, accessibility and reliability
of information provided for investors considering the preference of content over
form as well as providing appropriate information about Board structure and
performance, corporate issues and ownership structure can be a good strategy to
attract investors and encourage them to attend more actively in stock market.
toleSingh (2012)84 conducted an empirical study of Indian investors and observed
that most of the respondents do not have much awareness about the various
function of mutual funds and they are bit confused regarding investment in mutual
funds. The study found that some demographic factors like gender, income and
level of education have their significant impact over the attitude towards mutual
funds. On the contrary age and occupation have not been found influencing the
investor‟s attitude. The study noticed that return potential and liquidity have been
perceived to be most lucrative benefits of investment in mutual funds and the same
are followed by flexibility, transparency and affordability. rance.